FPV system

[RickE]

Hello guys,

For a buddy of mine I'm designing a gimbal where he can put his camera in, this gimbal will be hanging in the line of a big and stable kite.
As the gimbal will be high up we had the idea of incorporating a remote camera to be able to see where you are pointing the camera at.
The idea with this is to use it with a small mobile screen, but also have the possibility to connect it to a bigger stationary screen.
Now I'm trying to find my way around the forest of fpv camera's, transmitters and receivers.
But I am not sure what their quality output is, ideally we would like to see a 1080p resolution if possible.
Would you be able to point me in the direction of some of the parts needed for a set-up like I tried to describe above?

Thanks in advance

 

[Ducky84]

If quality of the live picture is what you are looking for, you would want to look into a Digital FPV system (As opposed to Analog)

SharkByte and DJI Digital FPV System are 2 digital systems available. I think DJI is the better quality, however I'm not sure if you can output to a screen. Maybe the SharkByte will let you, not sure you'd have to look that part up.

These are the 2 systems I'm aware of, maybe there are others...

 

[Corsair714]

There are no analog systems with quality that high. You would have to go digital which would be very expensive. Analog systems are cheaper than digital. I think you're just going to use the feed to see where the good camera is pointed right? Not record with it? Cause if you're not there is really no point to have video that high quality for just lining up your actually good camera.

If you really want 1080p then go with what ducky84 said. Just get DJI fpv system or SharkByte.

 

[RickE]

Thanks for the fast answers guys!

The initial thought for this is indeed to point the camera into a direction so we actually know what we're "shooting" .
Second thought for this was to couple this to a screen and use it at events to show people an image from above.
For this the higher quality would be preferred.

Looking at the two mentioned systems, what would be needed for these?
Also, I'm seeing a Caddx system there aswell, is that any good?

 

[Ducky84]

I personally haven't researched the Caddx system.

In general what you need is a camera, a video transmitter, and a video receiver. In DJI's case they have their Air Unit which is the camera attached to the video transmitter, then you have their Goggles which have the build in video receiver and that's it.

I did some quick research and it looks like you can actually output from the Goggles to a screen via HDMI, but you'd have to do a bit more research on how exactly that works. I was reading about it here: https://forum.dji.com/thread-213599-1-1.html

It sounds like you may need their Smartcontroller to do this, which results in the solution being pretty pricey at this point.

 

[Corsair714]

Thanks for the fast answers guys!

The initial thought for this is indeed to point the camera into a direction so we actually know what we're "shooting" .
Second thought for this was to couple this to a screen and use it at events to show people an image from above.
For this the higher quality would be preferred.

Looking at the two mentioned systems, what would be needed for these?
Also, I'm seeing a Caddx system there aswell, is that any good?

The caddx system is good, it's just a smaller version of the air unit. The caddx system is just a camera and vtx that caddx made to work with the dji goggles.

Also what's your budget?

 

[Corsair714]

One problem is that the dji fpv system doesn't do 1080p. Not in the way you want at least. It does 1080p on board recording, but only transmits 720p to the goggles. Idk if that's a dealbreaker for you.

 

[RickE]

720p would not immediately be a dealbreaker, the goal is to have a quality of video in which you can point out the people on the ground (maybe even recognize yourself).
The budget we had in mind was around 200 euro's.
Preferably one that can be plugged straight into a screen as it would save the extra parts to be used.

 

[Corsair714]

Sorry, but you can't get much for 200 euros. The goggles alone cost twice that and as far as I know there's no other way to watch the digital feed. DJI doesn't let many other companies make stuff that is compatible with their system.

 

[JasonK]

you could get an low/mid tier analog setup in that price range.

 

[Corsair714]

you could get an low/mid tier analog setup in that price range.

he could although analog isn't really something to impress crowds with 😂

 

[JasonK]

he could although analog isn't really something to impress crowds with 😂

Depending on what your doing, digital isn't that grand either... only HD without zoom doesn't get a whole mess of detail from far a way either, so it even that falls in to the 'it depends' land

 

[JasonK]

Actually... if your only talking the type of ranges you can get on a kite... you might want to look at a wifi based setup, with approprate antenna setups [ directional antenna on the ground], you should be able to get enough range, then you could use 'off the shelf' electronics to record and transmit the video signal.

I would suggest looking into the raspberry PI ecosystem as a starting point.

 

[PsyBorg]

Analog with a properly set up camera isnt much off what digital is. The BEST digital out there right now is only 810P The previous rein was only 720 p

I can get just as clear a picture with 480p analog or even better depending on who sets up the digital. Most people use AIO dog crap camera / vtx with zero light management. Then the few that actually use cameras with light management think they are playing a freaking video game and set theirs up high contrast and super saturated which blows out ALL of the details.

Most people struggle flying around and under trees worrying the cant see the scraggle. I fly IN the trees with no problems at all seeing tiny branches. It all boils down to finding proper gear for what you want to do and learning how it works and not cookie cuttering some other knuckleheads settings.

 

[RickE]

Sorry, but you can't get much for 200 euros. The goggles alone cost twice that and as far as I know there's no other way to watch the digital feed. DJI doesn't let many other companies make stuff that is compatible with their system.

So you're saying there's no way to circumvent the DJI goggles?
And there's no comparable HD system?

Actually... if your only talking the type of ranges you can get on a kite... you might want to look at a wifi based setup, with approprate antenna setups [ directional antenna on the ground], you should be able to get enough range, then you could use 'off the shelf' electronics to record and transmit the video signal.

I would suggest looking into the raspberry PI ecosystem as a starting point.

Ranges we are talking about here are up to 150 meters.
If we can get away with a directional wi-fi antenna that would be great!
You don't happen to have any experience in this field do you?

 

[CappyAmeric]

Thanks for the fast answers guys!

The initial thought for this is indeed to point the camera into a direction so we actually know what we're "shooting" .
Second thought for this was to couple this to a screen and use it at events to show people an image from above.
For this the higher quality would be preferred.

Looking at the two mentioned systems, what would be needed for these?
Also, I'm seeing a Caddx system there aswell, is that any good?

Caddx Vista is very good. It is manufactured by DJI, with the Caddx branding. It will NOT do 1080p - for that you would need the full DJI Air Unit, and it only does 1080p recording. The v1 goggles record and display 720p.

I have a quite a few DJI FPV setups for quads and fixed wing, and the video is unsurpassed. Analog and SharkByte are a joke in comparison. There quite a few YouTube videos showing DJI FPV on fixed wing platforms doing range tests past 10 kilometers.

 

[RickE]

Done some research on the Raspberry pi suggestion.
So far I have come up with the following list of parts:
- Raspberry pi Zero
- Raspberry pi Zero usb hat
- HQ camera unit RPi
- 6mm Lens
- TP-link ARCHER T3U PLUS
- TP-link TL-WR820N

With this I specifically did not choose the wifi version of the zero due to possible range restrictions.
Instead i went with the normal zero, a USB hat and an external USB wifi adapter.
Coupling the pi to the camera unit should be easy enough as they are both from the same manufacturers.

The idea of getting the feed down below would be of setting up a local network with the last mentioned part, a small router, and have the zero connect to that with a laptop or more portable a pi 4 with a small screen on the ground.

All of the above will be then combined into a small package by the use of some creative 3d printing.
And should hopefully give enough range for a nice view from the skies.